Drake Maye made his New England Patriots’ debut a bit earlier than anticipated.
The rookie quarterback replaced veteran Jacoby Brissett in garbage time of New England’s 24-3 loss to the New York Jets. Maye played the final four-plus minutes and orchestrated a 16-play drive, which led the Patriots into the red zone for the first time in the contest.
“I just thought it was a good opportunity for him to go out there with the ones and put a few drives together,” Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo told reporters, per a team-provided video.
Mayo kept the door open on a quarterback change.
But let’s not act like the Patriots should start Maye instead of Brissett because of those four-plus minutes. Any insinuation of such would completely overlook how New England fared during the 55 minutes before Maye entered.
The Patriots allowed seven sacks while the Jets compiled 15 quarterback hits. Brissett took five of those sacks while Maye was sacked twice during the garbage-time drive. The third overall pick took a few big hits, too.
New England’s offensive line looked as bad Thursday night as it has at any point this season. The Patriots started their third different left tackle as third-round rookie Caedan Wallace, a right tackle in college, took over for the injured Vederian Lowe. Wallace, like the rest of the group, struggled.
The Patriots allowed three quarterback hits and two sacks against unblocked rushers during their first three drives.
Why would the Patriots want to put Maye in such a situation?
There’s also the argument that Brissett hasn’t done anything to lose the job. The veteran signal-caller was pressured more than 60% of the time Thursday night and sacked just five times. He didn’t turn the ball over for the third straight game.
Maye, meanwhile, nearly had his first professional pass intercepted. Maye telegraphed a ball to tight end Austin Hooper, who found a spot in between a pair of Jets defenders on a curl route. New York cornerback Michael Carter II nearly took it for a pick-six. That certainly would have made for some different storylines following the loss.
Maye looked fine. He moved the chains with his legs and converted four of his eight passing attempts on short routes. But pointing to Thursday’s game as a reason why the Patriots should start Maye over Brissett would be, well, ignoring the first 55 minutes of Thursday’s game